Former India captain Virat Kohli believes the last two and a half years have taught him a lot. From stepping down as a captain across all formats to ending an almost three year drought of a triple figure score, Kohli believes he’s undergone major changes and that he’s not the same player as he was once before.
“Those angry celebrations are a thing of the past,” Kohli told ICC ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup. “I have had many suggestions, lots of advice has come my way; people were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong.”
On what helped him turn the tide with the bat, Kohli elaborated, “I picked out all the videos from the best time I had, same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was happening inside my head, I wasn’t able to explain it to anyone.”
Since scoring his century against Afghanistan during last year’s T20 Asia Cup – which was his first since November 2019 – Kohli has been the fifth highest run getter in international cricket, 1769 from 41 innings.
Going into the 2023 World Cup, Kohli is one of the only two players who were part of India’s 2011 World Cup winning squad, other than Ashwin.
Ahead of their opening game against Australia, India play warm-up matches against England and the Netherlands.